2007 National Championship Rewatch Companion

Earlier in the offseason I did a viewing companion for the 2006 National Championship game (which can be seen here, if you haven’t yet read and watched!) and it’s time for the 2007 game to get the attention it deserves.

If you haven’t watched the game in a while, luckily the NCAA’s official YouTube channel has the game up here. I’ll be referencing time codes from this video if you want to follow along.

This was a fantastic game that saw the Gators go against an incredible Buckeyes squad that had some really good players. It was also a reminder that if Greg Oden’s body never betrayed him he was going to have one heck of an NBA career.

Be sure to grab a beverage (or two) and some snacks and kick back and enjoy one of the greatest games of college basketball you’re ever going to see.

0:25—A hook and hold?! Luckily back in 2007 that rule didn’t exist or the refs would have gone to the monitor to evaluate Al Horford and Greg Oden tied up.

0:35—Joakim Noah has an early post up and gets fouled. An interesting matchup between these two teams is when it comes to fouling. Ohio State was second in the country in foul rate meaning they hardly sent their opponents to the line but Florida was 34th in the country at getting there.

P.S. I bet Noah would have gotten that continuation in 2020.

1:08—Brewer gets free in transition and hits a three. The Gators were 8th in the country in three-point percentage and even though Brewer wasn’t one of the players leading the way in this category he drilled one here.

1:23—Sorry to keep stopping the game with notes here, but there’s a lot going on in these first minutes. Horford gets called on a ticky-tack foul here (Oden had certainly earned the respect of the officials this season) and goes right to the bench for Chris Richard. The Gators didn’t want to mess around and have Horford get into trouble. For those who have read my work through the years you know subbing out a player early due to perceived foul trouble is not a strategy I support, but luckily the Gators have absurd depth in the frontcourt.

2:23—The Gators are a bit ahead of the times with a quick switching defense as Noah rotates seamlessly out onto a guard. Obviously you see this a lot now but it wasn’t as common in 2007.

3:57—Poor transition defense here as Mike Conley gets all the way to the bucket to score. Chris Richard gets caught in no man’s land here not taking away a pass or a ball handler.

4:45—It’s clear part of the game plan is to have whoever Greg Oden is guarding go set a ball screen to try to engage Oden defensively and potentially tire him out. In this case it’s Horford and Oden simply falls back into the paint to take away any drive to the rim and allow Horford to shoot a jumper. Horford obliges with his second long midrange jumper of the game and for the second time, he misses. Nowadays you hardly see these shots due to their inefficiency and Horford missing two of them shows why.

4:57—Greg Oden was an outstanding player and he shows his dominance here with a beautiful post up. Horford defended him well but there is just nothing you can do against a player that big with that good of touch.

5:19—Oden has been playing some somewhat…we’ll call it “reserved” defense and hasn’t been too active on that end and Taurean Green makes the Buckeyes pay by getting an easy bucket on the pick and roll drive. In past pick and rolls Oden had been dropping back to defend a drive like that but this time he seemed partially concerned with Horford and was stuck in between taking either of them away.

6:20—Corey Brewer gets a steal on the baseline out of bounds play. In the 2006 championship his active hands were a huge story and once again in 2007 he was wreaking havoc with his ability to poke away balls.

In the subsequent transition attempt Walter Hodge gets Greg Oden on him and exploits the mismatch perfectly, driving with the left hand and knifing through the defense on his way to a left handed layup.

(I also believe if you crank the volume you can hear some trash talk from Hodges on the drive, but it’s probably something that should have been censored so make sure no little ears are around when you listen for this!)

6:58—Joakim Noah and Al Horford might get most of the attention as shot blockers but Corey Brewer has a dandy here, timing out the Oden shot perfectly and rising up to meet the ball at its apex.

10:08—Corey Brewer catches an elbow in a, err, “sensitive area” that looks to be inadvertent from Oden, but you can be the judge.

14:50—Joakim Noah jump shots are…well, they’re always a sight to behold.

15:30—The broadcast shows how 10 of the Gators 17 points have been off turnovers. An interesting note about this is that Gators were 291st in the country in defensive turnover percentage so it wasn’t like they were a team adept at turning over their opponent but in this game they were really active getting into passing lanes.

Running off turnovers also benefited them because Ohio State was a team that liked to play slow and pound the ball into Oden, they weren’t a great team in transition. You have seen a few lapses already in the Buckeye’s transition defense and the Gators have taken advantage of it every time.

16:35—Another transition bucket from the Gators. Great ball movement has the ball in the hands of Lee Humphrey who makes an unselfish extra pass to Brewer for a wide-open corner three.

17:00—This is another monstrous bucket by Oden. Noah was one of the best defensive players in the country who went on to be one of the best defenders in the NBA for a decade and he just gets absolutely buried under the bucket by Oden. Injuries cut Oden’s career painfully short but this game is a reminder of how special a player he was.

17:20—Oden just had the monster dunk but on the next possession defensively you can see how tired he’s getting. Ohio State has been playing him way more minutes than normal and he has already looked tired in this half but on this possession after he just expended a lot of energy dunking on the Gators he looks exhausted. First he makes zero effort to deny an entry pass into Chris Richard and then instead of battling with him he makes an all-or-nothing swipe at the ball that ends up being a foul.

18:40—Oden is looking even more gassed. Ohio State runs a great play to clear out for him on the block, he makes a nice move to get a wide open layup…and blows it.

20:55—With Oden finally taking a rest it’s apparent that the Buckeyes didn’t really have much size other than him. 6’8” junior Matt Terwilliger is guarding Horford and the Gators immediately run a play to dump the ball into that matchup, and Horford makes a nice move and finishes.

21:57—I have always appreciated Mike Conley’s game and he makes a gorgeous pass in transition for a Buckeye dunk. Nothing the Gators could have really done here, that’s just an immaculate pass on the break.

22:20—The Gators are relentless in going after Terwilliger. They get it to Horford again who spins off Terwilliger who is forced to foul him to prevent a dunk.

23:35—An unsung hero of this game for the Gators is Chris Richard who is able to physically match up with Oden, something not a lot of players can do. Hey, let’s remember Oden was able to push around Noah and get an easy dunk but he can’t move Richard.

24:15—Lee Humphrey has been quiet so far, moving the ball around and playing solid perimeter defense, but you knew the time would come where he’d need to rip a three and here he drills one despite the fact it’s pretty well defended.

Also of note—Oden’s subpar pick and roll defense plays a bit of a role in this three as Conley has to help out on the role which leaves Humphrey open. Conley still does well to get a pretty good contest on Humphrey but when he gets his feet set off the catch, goodnight.

24:40—Richard has been playing TOO good of defense and I think the refs have had enough of it. They call a soft one on him for putting an arm bar into Oden, technically the right call but man, a soft one for a National Championship game.

25:35—Brewer was only a 34% three-point shooter with 40 makes on the year but he made them when it counted hitting his third triple of the game here. Each one has been really clutch as they have all given the Gators a bit of a cushion in what has been a really tight half.

26:10—The Gators start really putting on a three-point show as Green hits a nasty one, shaking off his defender before pulling up. Surprisingly Florida’s bigs haven’t been particularly effective from a scoring standpoint but these guards have been filling it up.

26:52—So I love analytics and the stat they show here is exactly why analytics matter—each team is 10-22 from the field but the Gators are up by 8 because they’ve hit more threes as well as gotten to the foul line more than the Buckeyes.

28:10—It seems like everything Brewer has done in this game has had amplified importance. Every three has come at a big moment and every steal has too. With Ohio State looking fatigued Brewer slaps away a ball and then dunks it on the other end stretching the lead to 11 and allowing doubt to creep into the mind of the Buckeyes.

29:45—Finally Horford gets a midrange jumper to fall and in doing so punishes Oden from falling back and playing conservative defense in the pick and roll.

31:02—The conservative drop pick and roll coverage used by Ohio State is vulnerable to guards pulling up off the dribble and Green drills one here after coming off the screen. Beautiful to watch.

32:35—Coming out of half time Oden looks a bit rejuvenated and he gets an early post up on Horford, pushing him under the hoop before laying it in. To me, this is another example of how strong Chris Richard was. We’ve seen Oden push around Noah and Horford with ease but he wasn’t able to move Richard.

37:10—Horford gets another wide-open midrange jumper and hits it. He is going to have this shot whenever he wants it.

38:00—In the 2006 National Championship game Humphrey waited until the second half to really start doing damage and I feel like this game was similar—he made sure everyone got involved early in the first half and once everyone got established he started going to work. This three was from deep and stretched the lead back to double digits.

40:03—Ohio State is 2-14 from the three-point line but that could almost be expected—the Gators were first in the country in three-point defense this season and the Buckeyes were 116th in three-point percentage.

42:45—Mo Buckets sighting! Marreese Speights enters the game and the Buckeyes try to get some slight rest for Oden by having him cover Speights instead of Horford but Mo Buckets does what he does best and hits the jumper. Before that shot the lead had shrunk to 7 points so this was a big basket.

47:55—Once again, just beautiful shot making from Lee Humphrey. Gets the defender in the air with a pump fake before getting space with a single bounce and then drilling it.

50:02—Noah, Horford, Richard, and Speights all with 3 fouls each. Florida’s incredible frontcourt depth was huge in this game as they really needed all those fouls.

53:50—Hodge has had some trouble with Conley. He has been burned off the dribble a couple of times and here Conley is able to pick his pocket and force a foul from Hodge. Conley is doing his absolute best to keep his Buckeyes in the game.

55:12—Every time it looks like Ohio State might be getting momentum Humphrey hits a dagger and this play is no different. Humphrey is killing any run the Buckeyes get with a three.

1:00:20—Oden is doing everything he can to keep Ohio State in the game and hits a nice bucket here but he’s expending so much energy having to post up and battle every time down the floor, especially when the Gators are putting him in every pick and roll on the other end.

1:01:40—This game is getting to be in danger for the Gators as Oden free throws cut the game to 6. Luckily, Green hits a massive three to stretch the lead the next time down the floor. Florida’s timely shot making in this game was incredible.

1:03:00—Okay, I mentioned earlier how I thought Richard showed how strong he was by not getting pushed around defensively while Oden was bullying Horford and Noah but this play was another level. On the OFFENSIVE end Richard takes it to Oden here, giving him a firm bump and pushing him back before laying it in. This was a marvelous game by Richard.

1:03:50—This tough leaner by Horford was desperately needed. Ohio State has found a way to stay in the game despite Florida’s shot making but with three and a half minutes on the clock this bucket by Horford helped keep the game out of reach.

1:04:20—I’m always going to remember this missed layup by Green. Even watching it for the 20th time now it feels like he’s going to lay it in and it’s going to be the dagger and I still feel surprised every time it spills out. Ohio State just gives up on this play and it’s almost like Green is too open. Fortunately they had given up on the play so much that once Green missed no Buckeye was even able to get the rebound and Horford came up with it.

1:05:55—Oden gets one more star call as the ref blows the whistle for a hold (I guess?) on Richard who was hardly engaged with Oden. Richard fouls out on this objectively weak foul call but luckily, his work had already been done. Florida had a big lead and a large part of it was Richard’s outstanding defense and toughness and I’m so happy that the last bucket of his career was a physical post up where he bodied up a tremendous player in Oden and came up successful. Richard was a senior so this was his last time leaving the floor in a Gators uniform. One of my all-time favorites.

1:07:20—Ohio State is applying pressure but at this point they need to be going all out for steals or fouling. They do end this possession with a steal but the Gators had already taken a chunk of time off the clock.

1:09:20—Mike Conley just won’t give up. Despite the fact this game is functionally over and the final minutes are a formality he’s fighting hard, coming up with a steal and a layup here.

1:14:53—Curtains. Your 2007 NCAA Champions, the Florida Gators! Back to back baby!

Like there was ever any doubt.

Eric Fawcett
Eric is a basketball coach and writer from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His work has been found at NBA international properties, ESPN, Bleacher Report, CBS Sports, Lindy's and others. He loves zone defenses, the extra pass, and a 30 second shot clock. Growing up in Canada, an American channel showing SEC basketball games was his first exposure to Gator hoops, and he has been hooked ever since. You can follow him on Twitter at @ericfawcett_.